Mirai no Tameni
by Khrollen
Summary: Because Rock, more than anything, wanted to see X; because Light wanted Rock to meet X too. And so, their wish is granted. A Classic/X crossover. Mostly dead. Sorry guys.
1. Prologue

A/N: A new story, along the lines of: "What would it be like if Rockman lived through to X's time?"

Please do notice that I myself have never played any of the Rockman games. If you find anything unsatisfactory, or wrong, please do tell me. However, for the moment, enjoy this story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Rockman characters, nor any Rockman X characters.

* * *

_Mirai no Tameni _(1)

Prologue: An End to the World as We Know It

Rockman breathed heavily, as his fusion chamber felt crushed, but he couldn't distinguish whether it was or not. Too many alarms and warnings crowded his processor, his body begging for immediate attention. The Demon, Zero, had caused too much damage. There was no way Light-_hakase _(2) would be able to fix this amount of extensive damage.

Rockman felt someone hold his upper body up, cradling his head. Ignoring the warnings, Rockman reactivated his visual and sound systems. His auto-repair system couldn't possibly fix him anyways; he wouldn't bother to either. Rockman found himself staring up at his creator's face, staring into eyes so similar to his.

"Rock…." Light-_hakase_ was crying.

"Fa…ther." Rock's voice crackled. Rock attempted a smile. "I wanted t…o see hi…m." Rock would have cried, had he been able to. "I wanted to see… him. X. _Boku no otouotu_ (3)."

"You will, Rock, you will." Light promised.

"You promise?" Rock clung onto this fantasy childishly. His logic concluded he wouldn't. But he wished….

"I promise." Light's fate was sealed. Rock's face seemed to light up in happiness. Light couldn't refuse his, now, eldest living son. Such elation, thinking he might see his younger brother someday. No, he couldn't.

"Rest, Rock, rest." Light's voice allured. "I assure you, I will fix you… and you will get to see X, awake."

"…Duo? Zero?" Rock couldn't speak full sentences any more. Light looked on worriedly.

"Duo… took Zero back to Wily's… Albert's fortress. Don't worry, Rock. Everything's alright."

Rock finally gave in and fell into status. Light gently laid his bioroid son down and stood up, grimacing as his joints popped.

Bracing himself, Light picked Rock up and painfully dragged the robot into the house. Rock wouldn't make it if he left him in this condition any longer.

Light promised Rock he would get to meet X. He intended to keep his promise, no matter how impossible it seemed. Even at the cost of his own life.

* * *

Archeologist, Dr. James Cain, couldn't believe his luck when he uncovered the android, Rockman X. He listened with rapt attention to Light-_hakase_'s recorded message, concerning how X was a new species of robot, years beyond current technology.

So caught up was he in Light's explanation and X's awakening that he didn't look around for anything else. He and the rest of the archeologists never noticed the smaller capsule resting in the far corner of the lab.

Sixteen years after X's awakening, the other capsule opened.

* * *

His head hurt.

… Was all that filled Rock's mind when he woke.

Rock realized he had fallen onto his forehead and quickly pushed himself up, looking wearily at his surroundings.

His initial thought was that he wasn't home. That was, until he recognized his surroundings as Light's lab. His next thought was that Roll _really_ needed to come down here. The place was grimy beyond words.

Then he remembered Roll died protecting him.

Rock quickly scrambled off the door of his capsule and ran over to where he remembered X was.

Rock stopped dead in his tracks when he saw X's capsule empty.

His little brother was gone. X was gone.

"X, X?" Rock called out, hoping, by some chance, that X had only woken up recently. How long was he asleep for? Certainly it couldn't have been thirty years….

But X was gone. Light-_hakase_ insured that, made sure that, X wouldn't wake up before his thirty year diagnostic period ended. Then how…?

_"Rock."_ Rock recognized it as Light-_hakase_'s voice.

"Father?" Rock turned around to meet face to face with… Light's hologram. "F-father?" He asked tentatively, unsure.

_"Rock, if you're hearing his recorded message… you have awoken from your over thirty year slumber."_ Light's hologram smiled wryly._ "I hadn't set a designated time for either your or X's status period, hoping that someone would wake you two instead. I didn't want either of you to wake alone, without guidance."_ Light sighed.

"Father…." So, Light was dead. Rock knew his human father would not live to see X's awakening (as Blues had so pointed out, much to Rock's dismay). If Rock had woken after X, it meant Light had most definitely passed away before. A wave of grief passed through Rock. Why was he alone?

_"As seeing that I'm not telling you this in person, I have passed away, Rock. I want you to take care of X for me. For all of us."_ Meaning that Light wanted Rock to take care of X for Blues', Roll's, Light's, and the rest of his family's stead. _"To… help you, I've upgraded your systems as much as I could without completely destroying your original body, as seeing that your core and memory systems were not compatible with ones like X's."_

In other words, Rock was still bound by his original programming and the Three Laws of Robotics. He didn't mind, really. _"I don't know what awaits you and X in the outside world. Who knows how many years have passed since I placed you in your capsule. However, I believe you two will do well. Rock, stay close to your brother, please…. And, I wish the two of you the best of luck. Good bye."_ Light's hologram phased out of existence.

Rock stared at the empty space where his creator's hologram once stood. He nodded his head. "I will Father, I will." He looked towards X's empty capsule. "But, I think I need to find X first." With that, Rock strode out of the lab and into the outside world… one-hundred-and-sixty years after his deactivation.

* * *

I'll try not to use so much Japanese words, considering that I'm not a native speaker, and nor am I learning this language, but I like to dabble a bit... and here you have the results.

(1) _Mirai no Tameni _- For the Future

(2) _Hakase _- is equivalent to doctor in Japanese; Rock will often refer to Light as such.

(3) _Boku no otouotu_ - My younger brother

Um, review please?


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: A thank you to Maverick Hunter Phoenix, Kink Cycko, MungoJerry, and Silver Horror for the reviews! I hadn't actually expected any... I'm so happy!

And so, therefore, I give you the next chapter! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Rockman, Rockman X, or any of the characters mentioned in this story. I do own the plot though.

* * *

**Chapter 1  
The First Look Into the World**

_Rock stared at the empty space where his creator's hologram once stood. He nodded his head. "I will Father, I will." He looked towards X's empty capsule. "But, I think I need to find X first." With that, Rock strode out of the lab and into the outside world… one-hundred-and-sixteen years after his deactivation. _Rock stared disbelievingly at the city before him.

* * *

Robots. _Everywhere_.

At least Rock knew he wouldn't feel out of place walking on the streets with his armor on. There were at least one robot per human Rock saw, and even then, there would probably have been more outside of their armor.

He was beside himself in confusion. Had there been more robot makers besides Light-_hakase_, Cossack-_hakase_, and Wily? Some of the designs didn't seem familiar.

Even more confusing was the lack of attention his armor seemed to bring. Not that he actually _wanted_ attention, it was nice to be ignored; but Rock couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed that his accomplishments and fame hadn't carried on into this timeline, as many years as it may have been.

Rock decided that he needed information on when and where he was; without it, who knew how long it would be until he found his younger brother?

Rock walked up to a random human and attempted to ask the location of the nearest library.

"_Anou_,(1)" Rock said tapping the elbow of an older looking elderly man. The man turned to face the bioroid, looking slightly cross. "Ah, would you happen to know the location of the nearest library?"

The man 'hmph'-ed. "I thought repliroids were supposed to know those kind of things by heart. Some help you are if you don't know even _that_."

Rock was taken aback from the evident disdain in the man's face and voice. "I-I'm sorry. I'm new around here…. Ah, so do you know…?" Rock asked the man timidly.

"It's five blocks up from here. Take a left at 15th road." The man supplied grudgingly.

Rock smiled hesitantly and bowed to the human. "Thank you very much." He said, and started walking off in the direction he was pointed.

A good distance away from the scary man, Rock began to contemplate the man's words. He had been called a 'repliroid' and the man seemed to generally dislike him… for being a so-called-'repliroid'. Maybe it was a new word to mean robot, or Bioroid? Either way, evidently, something bad had happened to cause such prejudice from the human. Of course, it could have been just a small minority of the people who disliked 'repliroids'….

Either way, Rock was sorely hoping the latter speculation was correct. He wished to avoid turmoil of any cause.

Rock looked closely around his surroundings as he walked. Whatever this city was, it certainly wasn't the Neo Tokyo he remembered, if it was Neo Tokyo at all. A large tower stood in the distance, seemingly reaching past the sky, looming over the city and drawing Rock's attention in general.

So much had changed… the fact only served more purpose of getting to the library. Rock quickened his pace.

_12__th__,13__th__, 14__th__, ahh… 15__th__._ Rock counted subconsciously as he walked past the signs. _Turn left…._

A large explosion blew plumes of smoke and smog forcefully out in front of Rock, stopping his musings. Rock habitually jumped back (years of fighting Wily's robots tended to do so to one) and was surprised at how far he flew back. He certainly had not applied much more pressure than he usually did for such an evasive maneuver. Rock quickly dismissed it for one of Light-_hakase_'s upgrades and quickly fell into a defensive position.

Screams ensued from all sides as both humans and robots fled fearfully from the scene. A few actually attempted to evacuate Rock as well (although none actually met much success), to whom he politely refused and urged that those get to safety quickly as possible.

When the smoke finally cleared, Rock found himself facing the side of an unusually large robot, slightly larger than Gutsman. It seemed to be shaped very similarly to…

_Centaurman?_ Rock stared.

"Kneel, pitiful humans! You'll all fall in the name of Sigma!" The Centaur roared, raising its hooves in a threatening manner.

_Sigma?_ Another threat to humans? Rock frowned. He had hoped there was no such thing in X's era, at least.

Sighing, Rock resolved to look up every scrap of information he could find later. He silently hoped X wasn't too caught up in this situation, and that he was safe. Hopefully, his brother didn't end up like this robot, or Zero.

Zero…. Rock wondered what had happened to the android, but placed his thoughts for later introspection. The so-called repliroid in front of him demanded his attention.

The Centaur seemed to have finally noticed him. "Oh? You're still here? Idiot. Trying to protect these weakling humans? Pah!" The robot actually spat at this point. Rock nearly jumped. "You're hopeless. These humans are doomed anyways. Forget them." The robot casually raised one of his legs to stomp down on a human's head.

Rock gasped in horror. No robot – even one of Wily's robots – had ever intentionally killed or hurt a human being. The only ones with the ability to do so were X and Zero.

These robots shouldn't have been able to break the three laws of robotics, unless….

Rock's thoughts were abruptly cut off as he hastily evaded one of the robot's hooves.

"Die!" the centaur growled as he repeatedly attempted to stomp down on Rock.

Rock dodged and jumped away neatly. He activated his buster and charged it. Not quite sure of the other robot's defense, Rock charged to the third level and fired.

To say Rock was surprised when his shot completely tore through the centaur's armor, and into the circuitry was a slight understatement. He himself was thrown back a couple yards, not anticipating the strong rebound from the sheer power of his buster. Rock shakily stood up and walked towards the presumably dead robot. He felt… guilty? He couldn't tell. The feeling was new to him; he felt horrible, if that were any indication to his current emotion.

Rock stared silently at the robot's corpse as oil and coolant spilled out, and… a flicker of something purple.

Rock, without thinking, reached down and cupped the thing with one hand. The thing twisted into a purple skull before vanishing.

Dark matter. What was it doing here? Rock was certain that Duo had destroyed all particles of it before he left. So, why….

"Hey, you! Deactivate your weapon and turn to face me with both your hands in the air." A commanding voice spoke from behind Rock. Startled, Rock spun around without deactivating his buster and aimed it at the speaker.

"Hey! I told you to deactivate your weapon!" the person said, almost exasperatedly, but Rock wasn't listening anymore.

"Zero." Rock said quietly. He tensed, compressing the urge to shoot the android on the spot.

The speaker, Zero, smirked at Rock. "Cool, you know my name, eh? Yeah, well, I suppose you would, 'cause I've saved the world a few times and all…." And with that, the android went off on a tangent into a narcissistic monologue about his 'greatness' and 'heroific-ness' if such a word existed.

Rock listened to this carefully, unsure of what to make of it. This was… Zero wasn't it? Wily's last creation. But… he didn't remember him? And what was this talk about… saving humans?

Light-_hakase_, he had said that Duo had taken Zero back into Wily's fortress… or whatever was left of it (Zero hadn't slacked off in making mass destruction; not even in his own home). Now that Rock thought of it, he had never learned of what happened to the android after he was supposedly taken back to Wily's fortress. Rock wondered what happened after some thirty years.

Even so, Rock understood that Zero had changed, but was it for the better, or for the worse (although Rock extremely doubted this; the fact that the Wily-bot hadn't attacked him yet provided evidence)?

"Hey, Zero!" Rock snapped back to attention and saw a smaller spiky haired robot with a scar (a scar? But robots didn't have those…) over his face in the shape of an 'x'. Zero, distracted, stopped in his monologue and turned to face the other robot, who promptly summoned two pistols out of thin air and shot at him.

"Bwah?!" Zero cried in surprise as the robot shot at him. He ducked hastily and the salvo of plasma bullets came flying towards Rock. In a split second, Rock jumped into the air, far out of harms range and landed gracefully a few yards back.

Rock wondered if the spiky haired robot was another enemy, but he realized that throughout Zero's monologue, he hadn't lowered his buster from Zero's form. Perhaps then… this robot was Zero's ally?

"Hey! What do you think you're doing Axl?!" Zero wailed as he turned his head to face the other robot from his position on the ground. "You could've hit me!"

"But I didn't!" The robot, Axl, grinned. Zero frowned.

"The fact that you could've counts." The disgruntled Zero huffed.

Axl ignored the fuming android and instead looked towards Rock, a serious look replacing the teasing one he had a few moments before.

Finally, a few terse moments later, "So, you're the Irregular responsible for this?" Axl asked Rock awkwardly. His face relaxed into a innocent confused expression as he said, "'Cause really, you don't look much like most of the Irregulars I've faced before." He frowned. "Now that I think about it, you look kinda like X." Axl turned to Zero inquisitively.

"I'm not sure if he's related to X or not." Zero shrugged. "He looks like he would be though, eh?"

Rock listened as the two conversed, intrigued by their mentioning of X. Perhaps it was his brother X (he didn't quite think that many people were named X nowadays… not that he knew what 'nowadays' was), although Rock wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not.

"Anyways, we're gonna have you come with us to Irregular Hunter HQ with us." Zero said as he approached Rock. Wary, Rock backed away slightly, right hand resting on his buster habitually.

"We're not gonna bite you know. We just need you for questioning." Axl said as he lightly fingered his pistols, spinning them around on his index fingers like a cowboy out of an old western movie.

'Questioning' and 'coming with us' started to sound more dubious than before.

"Can't I… not?" Rock said, sounding more like a mouse than robot.

"Unless you can magically make yourself less suspicious, or completely disappear altogether, I don't think so." Zero said offhandedly.

Rock bit his lip and took a step back, feeling uncertain whether or not to follow _Zero_ somewhere (were one to be nearly killed by someone, they wouldn't follow them either, even if the other person had forgotten about them). Finally, Rock raised his buster to point at Zero looking awkward (as he himself had never initiated a fight (the Wily-bots were always the ones to challenge him)), yet at the same time trying to look intimidating as well.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not quite sure I want to follow you to… Irregular Hunter HQ." Rock said, sounding more uncertain and apologetic than threatening. "Won't you let me go?"

Zero looked bemused. "Sorry kid, but we can't really have that." His hand moved to the handle of… something strapped on his back. Rock tensed and crouched into a more stable position.

"Yeah, we can't just let an Irregular go and weak more havoc, can we?" Axl said as he pointed his guns at the Bioroid. He released the safety with a click.

Rock's situation seemed to get more worse by the second. Looking at the outcome of the last time he had fought with Zero… well, he didn't really stand a chance against both Zero and another robot of who he hadn't anything to gauge his strength with.

Rock grimaced as he weighed his options. Considering how little percentage there was of him somehow defeating both Zero and Axl, there really was no other choice but to run. He looked around the sparsely populated area and examined the tall buildings on either side of him. He calculated the space in between the two buildings and their approximate height, seeing whether or not it would make it….

Rock allowed himself a smile as he got his calculations. Perhaps he had a chance after all.

"Fine then." Rock replied loudly to the awaiting robots. "Don't expect me to come easily without a fight."

"Good," Zero said back to the Bioroid. "It wouldn't be fun otherwise."

Axl grinned. "Don't think we're gonna go easy on you just 'cause you're cute!"

Cute?

Rock was distracted and he nearly slipped as he charged forwards. What weird opponents he had.

No matter. Rock smiled childishly. He would come out the winner this round.

* * *

(1) _Anou_: It doesn't really have a correct translation, but if you were to translate into English, it'd mean something along the lines of um, or er. It's just a filler word really.

Actually, I need some information on X, Zero, Axl, and the history of Rockman X in general. As I've said before, I myself have never played any Rockman/MegaMan game... so, yeah. Help would be very much appreciated!

And so, on this note, review please!


	3. Chapter 2

* * *

Holy cookies! I'm updating!

I'm so sorry for not submitting anything sooner, but this and that happened and... you know what? Nevermind. Just stab me through with Zero's saber. I'm completely at fault.

... Or don't stab me, 'cause otherwise I won't be able to put up my next chapter (unless you DON'T want me to post the next chapter... then whatev'. Kill me).

Oh, and I replaced all the previous chapters for the sake of corresponding information.

Anyways, a big thank you to: Mungo Jerry, Stormwind, Illucien, shadowneko003, Krow Blood, Silver Horror, Kit Ninja, and animal's darkside for the reviews!

And now, onwards! To the newest enstallment of: Mirai no Tameni!

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Rockman (MegaMan). If I did, I wouldn't be writing FANfics, now would I?

* * *

Chapter 2

The Library

* * *

The smaller bioroid ran recklessly at Zero and Axl, not bothering to charge his weapon as he neared the duo. Zero pulled the handle from his back and activated it to form a… lightsaber?

Were the situation not so grave, Rock would have stopped to stare and laugh, but seeing as he didn't have time at the moment, Rock shook himself of his amusement and used his slide function to slip between his opponents. He quickly turned to shoot the two on their backs with low-level shots before swiftly scattering a few shots around the area.

Unfazed by the relatively weak burst of plasma, Zero spun around to face Rock and taunted, "Hey, where are you shooting at?"

Rock ignored him and continued shooting. Axl, lightly charging his guns, fired a couple rounds at the bioroid who deftly evaded them in a graceful twirl, and Rock in turn, refocused his plasma on his opponents. The two dodged by shooting a burst of air through the bottom of their boots and separating, landing on opposite sides of the 15th road, directly underneath two buildings.

Seeing his chance, Rock charged two shots and fired at each of the buildings, causing them to collapse due to the previous abuse they had received through Rock's haphazardly fired shots.

With a yelp, both Zero and Axl were buried underneath tons of concrete and steel.

Rock gave one last look back at the two trapped robots, making sure that they wouldn't be running after him anytime soon, before rushing off, not trusting himself able to teleport using the old coordinates (he couldn't be sure if he'd rematerialize in a building, or perhaps in the ground…).

Rock jumped up onto the roof tops, feeling very much like Blues, and disappeared quickly from the scene. He grimaced as he thought of what troubles he might encounter from now on.

Irregular Hunters… they seemed to be a government run group, from what Rock could deduce from the size and organization of the squadron run by Zero. But why would a Wily-bot join the government? Even more, those two… they had said that they were after Irregulars… but what exactly was an Irregular?

… That robot that he had just destroyed (Rock sobered at the thought of his deed) had a piece of Dark Matter residing inside of him…. Perhaps, that was what caused the robot to suddenly attack the humans, unless the Dark Matter merely attached onto the robot because of such malignant thoughts…. There were just too many unknown variables that could have caused anything, but none explained the existence of the alien energy back on Earth.

Nevertheless, Rock had a feeling that so-called Irregulars were unwelcome by these Hunters and probably the majority of the population in general…. And seeing as how he had just been being accused of one as well, Rock decided that perhaps he should go incognito for the moment.

He dismissed his armor into the small pocket space that normally held it, and found himself in a blue long-sleeved shirt and shorts… but with no shoes. Rock frowned and decided that it wasn't enough trouble and jumped down into an alleyway. He continued on to the library, ignoring the stares he received from the crowds of people and robots he passed by.

Perhaps he needed some money too.

Rock stared up at the colorful billboards, smiling slightly at the cheesy pictures and phrases that decorated them. Some were about the newest hover bike model that had just been developed, the newest armor styles, and (much to Rock's amusement) recruitment posters for the Irregular Hunters.

'Join the Irregular Hunters and fight for peace in the twenty-second century!' one said.

… Wait… the twenty-second?

Rock took a few steps backwards and walked past the sign again.

It still said twenty-second century.

Rock's mind reeled.

But that meant that it had been at least a _hundred_ years since his deactivation! Then wait… how much longer had X been activated for than him? It could have been as long as nearly a hundred and seventy years… Rock worried it had been too long. He bit his lip, and after taking one more look at the poster, Rock quickened his pace to get to the library. The sooner he got his answers, the better.

* * *

The librarian, a stout, rotund, but friendly robot, smiled happily as he quickly, and easily pulled up files from the shelves (as paper books were just too expensive, apparently) and layered them into Rock's arms. Being a robot, Rock had no problem holding up the weight, but he felt like his processor was going to burst at the rate in which the librarian was speaking.

The robot seemingly loved to talk, and he dumped tons of information onto the overwhelmed Light-bot as he chattered away, spouting more random facts and trivia than Rock knew one robot could store in his hard-drive.

"And so, during the 4th war, you know, the one with Repliforce, the Hunters Rockman X and Zero ended up fighting Sigma too! It was really unexpected; we all thought that the Irregular leader had died in the last war, but the guy really doesn't die does he? I mean, he's come back for every single war since the first one (like Wily, Rock thought), but we're not quite sure why he won't die and stay dead. Some think that as long as the Irregular virus stays, he does too. And…" The librarian chattered on, pulling more and more files off the shelves and into Rock's already overloaded arms.

Rock kept himself from exclaiming out loud every time his younger brother was mentioned (after all, it just wouldn't do to jump the chatty librarian and demand information on the android; that was what he had come to the library for, wasn't it?). He itched to read up the information on the chips that lay in front of him, but he couldn't just rudely interrupt the robot, could he? What if he got mad at him (his programmed personality kept a sharp hold on his actions, and Rock felt this was most likely a good thing) and snapped at him like the old man he had asked the directions to (somehow, Rock had gotten into his mind that everyone was either snappish, or he had a programming error that made him unable to realize whether he was rude or not… but that didn't really matter)?

So therefore, Rock, when the librarian paused to take a dramatic breath (as robots they didn't really need to breathe), Rock bravely ventured to ask, "Um… excuse me, Librarian-san?"

The robot abruptly shut his mouth and turned to face the meek bioroid with an abashed smile.

"Ah, sorry, I was rambling wasn't I? Yes, I do have a bad tendency to do so…." The librarian rubbed his head sheepishly and placed one more chip into Rock's arms. "I think this is the information you're looking for. Um, do you need help carrying them?" He motioned to how Rock was barely balancing, trying to keep all the chips from falling.

"N-no, I'm fine." Rock shifted his shoulders. "S-should I return these to their shelves when I'm done?"

"No, when you're done, you can return them to the front desk. I'll put them back up later." The librarian motioned to his over cluttered reception desk. "Are you sure you don't need help?"

"Yes." And Rock scurried off to sit at an empty desk.

He sat down on a synthetic chair and gently lowered his large pile of information chips onto the table. With a sigh, Rock examined the pile and picked up a chip labeled "Repliroids". After hesitantly looking around, Rock followed another's example and prodded a red button on one side of the chip. Instantly, a holographic screen was projected on the other side. Unprepared, Rock gave a small squeak as the hologram solidified slightly and poked him sharply on the cheek.

A series of soft laughter and whispering followed, causing many to look up from their own holograms to stare at the flustered bioroid. Rock quickly up righted his file chip and hid behind the semi-transparent display. The stares were directed away soon afterward.

Sighing, Rock stopped looking around nervously and brought his attention to the file-chip. After examining the functions, he deemed he could utilize the alien device and started reading.

'Replica Androids (better known as Repliroids), are robots with complete free will and thought processes similar to that of humans. Originally based off of the designs of Rockman X (_Rockman_ X? It seemed Light-_hakase_ completed the originally mostly unnamed android with Rock's), Doctor James Cain created repliroids as imperfect copies of the famous Irregular Hunter (Rock's eyebrows rose slightly at the statement). Their ability of free will comes from their programming structure of which differs greatly from a mechaniloid's…. Biomechanical organs control a standard repliroid's mobility, however, repliroids modified for basic combat have more mechaniloid-like enhancements and their limiters are generally removed, allowing them to utilize their full power….'

Rock quickly skimmed through, noting the similarity between repliroids and his brother. He mainly ignored information on their builds, as he had the original schematics for X in his database.

'However the ability of free will also required that the three laws of robotics (or four depending on the inclusion of the Zeroth Law: "A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm") be excluded in the adaptable programming of a repliroid's mind. For this reason, repliroids were able to become irregular and turn on the human population of their own 'free will'; a phenomenon never seen before in previous high AI robots. Later, it was observed that many homemade repliroids or the many of the first prototype repliroids became Irregulars because of instability in their personality matrix or an error in the largely unknown and complex function capability of the central processor…. Later repliroids, although stable in mentality, became Irregulars through the influence of the Irregular Virus, also known as the Sigma Virus due to its origin being believed to have come from the former Irregular Hunter Commander….'

Again, the Irregular Hunters came up. Quickly reading through the rest of the file, Rock turned off the holographic screen and selected another chip, this time reading "Irregular Hunters". The holographic screen instantly popped up again.

'Founded by Doctor James Cain in 21XX (2118), the Irregular Hunters are an organization for the purpose of protecting the citizens from Irregulars (also known as Mavericks in other countries). Started in Abel City, the organization has gained international status since then….'

Rock read on about the first Irregular Uprising (in 2119, the Irregular Hunters were nearly wiped out), how his younger brother was involved, how Zero led the remaining Irregular Hunters, who this Sigma he had often heard of was (and none a more Wily-like character existed , it seemed), the Irregular Virus that caused most of these wars….

As the world's history revealed itself to him (he found it had been nearly a hundred and sixty years since his deactivation), Rock found himself with a newfound respect for X and even Zero (of whom sacrificed himself many a times for the sake of X and the world, the complete opposite of the purpose Wily had assigned the android) and Axl (the prototype of a new category of repliroids ("New Generation" or "newgens") who had joined X and Zero in the role of saving the world from Sigma only recently), despite having been his opponents a few minutes before. And indeed, he couldn't really call his younger brother… a younger brother anymore. Not only had X been active far longer than he had, his accomplishments didn't seem like much after seeing what had happened to the prototype android.

It was just… too much. He hadn't even read upon the general world history yet!

Another thing that worried Rock was the so-called Irregular Virus. Just what was it? According to the information on the new generation repliroids, they weren't infused with Positive Energy, so the virus couldn't have been integrated with Dark Matter (although their properties were very similar)… then why was a piece of Dark Matter residing inside the Centaur Irregular?

Every time Rock seemed to find an answer to his questions, there became more. Perhaps he was better off ignorant.

Sighing, Rock reached out for a chip labeled "The Lost Past: What Happened in Between 20XX and 21XX" when the earth shook and all the files fell off the table (save for the chip Rock had been reaching for) and clattered to the floor.

Still clutching the chip, Rock joined into the masses of humans and repliroids who cried aloud in surprise. "Uwah?!"

Rock stared on as half the roof of the library caved in. A metallic dragon head peeked into the hole and grinned. _Grinned_.

"Ohh, lots of humans, lots of humans to kill!" the dragon-irregular sing-sang.

Rock nearly did a face plant. Another Irregular attack. Just how many were there in a day anyways?

Taking in a large breath, the Irregular reared its head slightly out of the ceiling before exhaling a stream of nitrogen-fire.

Immediately taking action, Rock summoned his armor and jumped into the line of attack, shielding a human child with his body.

"Please get out of here; quickly!" Rock ushered, his body clearly straining under the pressure and heat. The child nodded with wide eyes before scrambling from out under the bioroid and running for the exit.

Assured of the child's safety, Rock turned slightly and fired a weak shot at the head of the repliroid, distracting it, and took the chance to escape from its range of fire. As he raised his buster again to shoot a charged shot, Rock was surprised to hear a cry of, "Iria Buster! (Or something that sounded similar)" and have a shot of burning plasma sear past his right shoulder.

The Dragon repliroid shrieked in pain as the shot hit, and recoiled back out of the building.

"Hey, child, are you alright?"

* * *

Ohh, a cliffy.

I know, I know, I'm being mean, but I wanted to update sooner so... yeah.

I'm sorry, animal's darkside! I really ment to put in Rock's culture shock thingy, but... I just couldn't. I just decided that since there wasn't too much visible difference between the cultures of Rockman X and today, so I wouldn't forcibly add anything. I'm really sorry for the misinformation.

A cookie to whoever gets the 'mysterious' repliroid's identity!

Well then, please review, and see you all next chapter!


	4. Chapter 3

Hey, ya'll! Happy Holidays!

My present to you guys is… the next chapter of Mirai no Tameni! Haha, I know not the Wii, Playstation 3, or Nintendo DS that you wanted, but it'll have to do; right?

Anyways, prepare for a sort-of-OOC-mystery-repliroid-dude/tt from last time. I didn't really know how I wanted to characterize him/her… so yeah.

Btw, thanks to: Bobcat Moran, StardustDragon052, Kit Ninja, Krow Blood, Silver Horror, The Legendary Hero - That Guy, shadowneko003, and for the reviews!

Hey! It's your present: enjoy!

Disclaimer: Unfortunately for me (and probably fortunately for the rest of the world), papers with the rights to ownership of Rockman/MegaMan and all corresponding franchise was not underneath my tree when I last checked this morning. So… um, I don't own them?

* * *

Chapter 3

Mommy Alia

* * *

"Hey, child, are you alright?" a voice called from where the plasma shot came. Rock turned around to face a female repliroid in pink armor with blond hair and blue eyes. Her buster was summoned, but faced downwards. Rock relaxed slightly.

Not forgetting his courtesy, Rock replied, "A-ah, yes m'am."

The repliroid giggled lightly and patted his head with her right arm, the unchanged one. "So, polite." She commented appraisingly. "And brave too; are you sure you're not hurt?"

"Yes m'am." Rock repeated, with more certainty this time.

The woman smiled. "Good. Now come on, let's get out of here; it's dangerous."

"B – but, what about the Irregular?" Rock motioned.

"It's too dangerous for us to handle ourselves; we're going to have to wait for the Hunters to arrive. Don't worry about it: Special Shinobi(1) Unit #00 will be here soon. They're not heading directly from base, so they might take awhile, but they'll be here soon enough." The repliroid assured, and Rock allowed himself, grudgingly perhaps, to be dragged off.

Although the repliroid attempted to hold on to Rock's hand, they were soon separated by the tide of the fleeing humans and repliroids, and taking his chance, Rock sped back towards the Irregular, painfully ignoring the cries of the female repliroid and his burnt back.

Easily weaving in-between the flood of people, Rock steadily made his way back to the now destroyed library and spied the Dragon Irregular spouting pillars of flames and ear-splitting roars into the sky.

As soon as he was free of the crowd, Rock took off at a full dash as he charged his left buster. He fired as soon as the charge reached the second level, not wanting to underestimate the strength of his buster again. The plasma hit the Irregular straight on, knocking it off its already precarious balance.

"Grah! Who dares oppose me?" The dragon roared as it attempted to right itself again. It looked around wildly in an attempt to locate its attacker, but to no avail, as Rock rolled and hid behind a particularly large piece of roof, safely outside of the Irregular's eyesight.

It seemed that this repliroid was more strongly armored than the centaur Irregular. Assured of this, Rock began charging his buster again, this time aiming to reach the third level charge.

The Irregular, however, had other plans. With a roar, it swung its long tail around and knocked away the largest bits of rubble from its immediate area. Rock had to jump from his spot behind his roof-shield to avoid becoming knocked over from the attack. However, this left him unprotected against the Irregular's fire attacks. And indeed, the dragon spotted him, flying through the air, and unable to dodge, Rock faced the blast of the nitrogen-fire in full.

"Argh!" Rock choked, reacting involuntarily to the overload of pain sensors and warning flashing across his systems. He was sent flying, and the bioroid skidded across the rough, debris littered ground before coming to a stop by denting his helmet on a stray metal beam.

"_Itte_(2)," Rock muttered as he uneasily held up a hand to steady his head. According to the diagnostic results, the damage wasn't as bad as it felt; less than four percent down from maximum efficiency.

Taking Rock's momentary pause in action, the Irregular shot another pillar of fire at Rock, who sloppily rolled to the side to dodge. The bioroid pushed himself on to his feet in time to run forward and avoid another blast. Rock charged his left buster as he neared the dragon, easily keeping his charge as he dodged all the repliroid's attacks. Finally, he got near enough to dash-slide underneath the behemoth and shot the Irregular on the back with a blast geared to the third degree.

… Only, it turned at the last moment and Rock ended up hitting a great red glowing… gem on its chest. Rock supposed that it served similar function as the crest on X's helmet (for the control chip, that was), and it seemed to be its weak point, as the Irregular recoiled violently and attempted to hide the cracked spot with one of its gigantic claws.

Unwilling to give up his newfound advantage, Rock shot an uncharged shot to remove the obscuring arm out of the way and moved to send another charged shot at the weak point. Rock was distracted for a moment when he heard, "_Kimi_(3)! Get down!" accompanied by a semi-familiar cry of "Aria Buster!", and Rock wisely decided to hit the deck as a strong burst of electrically crackling plasma shot seared overhead.

The Irregular roared one last time as the shot tore straight through its chest, aided by the crack Rock had inflicted not too long before. A large resounding explosion shook the air, blowing the robot to bits and effectively showering Rock with its debris.

Warily, Rock stood up and retracted his buster. The pink repliroid that had attempted to take him to safety immediately disengaged her buster as well and ran up to the more than slightly ruffled bioroid.

"Hey, are you alright?" the repliroid asked gingerly as she took in the sight of a charred and overall "egg-beater"ed Rock. The other nodded and gratefully accepted the pink repliroid's help as she pulled the bioroid upright.

"Th-thank you." Rock gratified politely with an incline of his head. The other robot just smiled and giggled before resting a dainty hand on top of Rock's dented helmet.

"It was no problem." She replied. A worried face instantly shadowed over, however, as she started rubbing the caved in portion of Rock's helmet. "Mm, this looks like it hurts… ah, I never did catch your name."

"Rock." Rock replied, unwilling to give his full name, in case his got mixed up with X's. "My name is Rock." He repeated, just for clarification.

The repliroid smiled. "And my name is Alia. It's nice to meet you, Rock-kun(4)." said the newly introduced Alia. "Anyways, Rock-kun, didn't I tell you to get away from here?"

"Ah, um… I'm sorry, Alia-san(5)." Rock apologized sheepishly. "However, I couldn't stand to wait for the Irregular Hunters to come when I felt I was capable of fighting the Irregular by myself. If left for too long without resistance, the Irregular could have possibly hurt someone and caused more damage."

Aila looked at the bioroid in an astonished manner before bursting out into laughter. Surprised, Rock jumped and stumbled back a few steps.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Rock-kun," the repliroid apologized between giggles. "But you sounded so much like someone I know… you look a lot like him in armor." Alia had to break off for another chuckle. "It's too cute! It was like staring at a child version clone of him."

"Ah." Rock muttered as he was pulled into the bosom of the female repliroid. And while Rock could have testified that Alia's robotic strength was making him more than slightly uncomfortable, the bioroid couldn't deny that such intimate contact felt… comforting.

So, Rock allowed Alia to continue crushing his metal lungs and oxygen fusion chamber.

The bioroid had half a mind to go check upon the corpse of the mostly destroyed dragon Irregular and to get away and out of armor, just in case the Special Shinobi Unit #00 decided to attempt to get him to Irregular Hunter HQ (just as Zero and Axl had attempted). However, with his arms effectively pinned to his sides by Alia, and his courtesy put in check by his programming, Rock couldn't do much of anything to escape the repliroid's loving (but suffocating) grasp (Rock briefly considered Alia to be an Irregular Hunter, looking to take him to Irregular Hunter HQ as well).

Trapped and flustered, Rock couldn't do anything when he heard a dreaded bass voice, saying, "Alia, get away!" and a relatively weak shot hitting the back of his neck, easily overloading his systems and plunging the world into darkness.

Rock's eyes blearily opened to a dark background as system diagnostics and status results ran through his processor.

Reports of twenty-eight percent energy decrease from maximum efficiency, as well as physical defects from previous battles blared in Rock's head, unwilling to unclog his visual sensors until he acknowledged them. Rock compiled, if only to clear his vision, and attempted to move his limbs to manually check their mobility.

Or at least, this was his intention, but restraints held his arms and legs, even his head, against a stiff metal board, pinning him like Jesus on the cross.

Rock frowned and pulled at the fetters with his wrists, testing their durability. After a few tries, he gave up and instead warily turned his attention to the location he was confined in.

He was in a blank square room with a few lights and a rectangular mirror on one side, next to an automated door. There were cameras fixed upon him at every angle, and Rock glared slightly at the nearest one. A burst of static resounded through the small room and the door opened, revealing a harassed Zero, a worried looking Alia, and an amused Axl.

"It seems you're awake." Zero said, attempting to regain composure, but to no avail as Alia elbowed the taller android and pushed him aside to reach Rock. "Ow! Alia, what are you doing?" he cried childishly at the pink repliroid, who merely looked back at the Wily-bot with disdain.

"'_What am I doing?_'" Alia asked incredulously. "_I_ am freeing Rock-kun, because he has done nothing wrong on any standards. In fact, he should be getting praised for his valor in defeating the Irregular at the library!" and she turned around to fuss over Rock as she released the restraint on Rock's neck. "Are you alright, Rock-kun?" She asked tentatively. Rock nodded mutely, and Alia looked more worriedly at the bioroid.

When Alia reached for the release button for the wrist cuffs, however, Axl grabbed onto Alia's hand, to which Alia turned sharply and glared at the sheepish new-gen.

"Sorry, Alia, but you know, he did destroy two buildings and fight us, even if he didn't directly land a shot…." Axl attempted to reason. When Alia did not look appeased, he hurriedly added, "All we need to do is question him! 'Cause, we didn't get any match-ups from the DNA in any of the catalogues of registered repliroids, you know?"

"But is it really necessary to bind him like this?" Alia motioned violently to the restraints, and Axl smiled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Um, no, but… we – we didn't know how the Irregul – (Alia glared harshly, and Axl wisely clammed up and decided not to finish his sentence) I-I mean, _Rock_, would react when he woke up, so… you know…." And Axl trailed off, unsure of as how to continue.

"Yeah, so get off our case, Alia." Zero finished for his lieutenant. He earned another elbow, this time to the face, courtesy of Alia. "Ow, damnit! What'd ya do that for, Alie?" Zero cried, only to receive another elbow attack.

With an apathetic expression, Alia commented, "First off, don't call me 'Alie'. Second, considering your previous actions towards Rock-kun, I fear that his safety might not be all so secure; you're not going to be questioning him without my supervision."

"What happened to the 'Duty before emotions' part of you from the sixth war go?" Zero whimpered, but Alia ignored him, instead looking to Axl for conformation if she could release Rock's restraints.

"Um (Axl glanced at his captain), sure, why not?" He shrugged, and Alia took no hesitation to do so.

Now unbound, Rock took the time to finish the manual check-up of the functionality of his limbs before smiling at Alia and saying, "Thank you, very much, Alia-san."

Alia grinned back at him. "No problem." She then grabbed a hold of Rock's hand before turning to Zero. "C'mon, Zero. Let's go to a more comfortable room and get this over with. I'm sure Rock-kun needs to be somewhere, and so do I."

"Yeah, yeah." Zero mumbled and led their party out of the confinement chamber and into the hallways of Irregular Hunter HQ.

And as Alia gently squeezed his hand encouragingly, Rock looked up at the smiling repliroid and wondered if this was what it felt like to have a mother.

* * *

Well, it probably was.

Yes, we all knew the humor had to hit _sometime_, right? Right.

(1) Shinobi = ninja; although, I don't think Zero's very ninja-like....

(2) _Itte_ - "Oww" or an exclamation of pain.

(3) _Kimi_ - You (informal)

(4) -kun - an honorific usually reserved for younger boys, or female co-workers.

(5) -san - an honorific used to denote a higher rank, status, or age; basically an automatic "Mr." or "Mrs./Ms."

Oh, and batches, and batches of cookies to: Bobcat Moran, StardustDragon052, The Legendary Hero - That Guy, and shadowneko003 for guessing correctly! Yay for Alia!

And now... a poll: should Rock reveal his past? Or should I just find another detriment to his ultimate goal? Only_ you_ can decide!

Again, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year (just in case (more like _because_) I don't update in time)!

Until next time!


	5. Chapter 4

Hello everyone! And here I am after about two? three? months with my shortest chapter yet!

... I'M SO SORRY!

*sniff* I typed this chapter out... around a month and a half ago... but then I read it over and decided it wasn't fit for human viewing. So I retyped it... and X was being stubborn about being typed out by an amateur writer... and... I dunno; I guess I never got around to picking the story up after that.

And suddenly: BAM! I got out the half completed document and typed something out while listening to some compilation of D. Gray-Man and Reborn! opening music on replay. So as much to say, this isn't my best... but it'll have to do until I get some crazy inspiration to rewrite the whole story.

Oh, and a thank you for all my reviewers: Kit Ninja, Krow Blood, Firefangs, Silver Horror, StardustDragon052, Obasan-Kitsune, GundamWingFanatic90, Magnus Prime, Suigetsudan, and the guy named Mike, although he proclaimed he would not read any more of my story because I used Japanese words.

Do my usage of Japanese words bother people so much? If so, I'll change all the previous chapters. And although I'm thinking you're not reading this, Mike, I'm sorry for having offended you.

Also, another apology for my reviewers: I'm sorry I didn't respond to any of you!

I swear, I would rear up to respond to one of them when suddenly I would loose all confidence in my ability to communicate to another human without sounding like a total dork. I am sorry. It doesn't mean I don't like your reviews! I revere them: I live off them. I promise to attempt to reply next time (even if I sound like some foreigner without social skills).

Ack, I've kept you all from the story long enough! Here we go: enjoy!

Disclaimer: What made you think I owned Rockman (MegaMan) in the first place? I'm most obviously too poor: unemployment does wonders.

* * *

Chapter 4

Those Devastating Eyes

* * *

"Right, so then, although we already know this one, what's your name, kid?" Zero asked monotonously.

"Rock." Rock answered.

"Age?"

Rock mulled awhile on this question before finally answering, "Ten," in reference to his physical age.

Zero glared suspiciously. "What was that long pause before your answer for?"

Rock easily stared back. "Is that a necessary question to answer?"

"Che. Identity number?" Zero asked next as he gave up.

"Identity number?" Rock stared. Zero sighed.

"Yeah, you know, that stupid number system the government's assigned every repliroid since… forever."

"Ahh," Rock grunted. Well, this was careless of him. He shifted slightly. "I-I don't have one."

"What?" Axl exclaimed. "But everyone has one. Well, I guess I was an exception too, but that was 'cause I was a new-gen prototype."

Alia sighed. "Well, this does explain why Rock-kun doesn't have an entry in the repliroid logs. Say, Rock-kun, were you built privately?"

Rock did a double take. "What?"

So did Zero. "Alia, the government's banned private production of repliroids since the first ones went crazy. Even if someone did build a repliroid privately, they would have to get the government's OK before activation. Not to mention they'd assign him a number too."

"I know, that already, Zero. Even so, there are people willing to bend the law… a little more than they should." Alia said exasperatedly. "So, Rock-kun, were you?"

Rock wavered. If he said 'yes', he'd be tainting his creator's name (a bit, indirectly), but if he said 'no', there would be more suspicion against him, and he'd never get to see X.

"Rock-kun?" Alia asked again.

Rock made up his mind. "N-no." he stuttered out, ignoring the guilt associated with lying.

Zero narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Really? Then why don't you have an ID?"

"J-just." Rock muttered, adverting his eyes from Zero's accusing ones. Zero glared.

"Bet your creator was a fat 'ol looser." Zero finally said.

And before Rock knew what he was doing, he had shouted, "Light-_hakase_ was _not_ a fat old looser!" very childishly, and all he could do after was gape in horror at what he had just revealed before pushing past Alia and Axl, violently knocking the steel door down when it wouldn't open fast enough, and running out into the crowded hallways, desperate to get away from the trio.

He didn't hear Alia calling after him, nor did he see Zero's stunned face, or Axl collapse into himself, holding onto his head as though it was the only thing keeping him sane.

Finally after ten good minutes of rudely shoving past people, repliroids, and mechaniloids alike, Rock collapsed in a closet (as for how he got there, even he couldn't tell) and emo-ed all over his actions in the past fifteen minutes.

Oh what had he _done_? It wasn't like him to lash out like that; that was Forte's specialty. He always had complete control over his programmed emotional responses and actions before… yet all today, that part of his programming had gone haywire. That wasn't even the worst bit; his original personality programming was sending sirens all over his systems, causing him to twitch and convulse every few seconds (around six-point-seven-three seconds to be more exact, Rock noted dully), and something wet was trailing down his cheeks.

It seemed to come from his eyes, so Rock attempted rubbing it dry, but it only served to extract more of the liquid. It took him a few more lines of processing to realize that the liquid was a mixture of sodium-chloride, water, and some other impurities that had gathered in his optic sensors. Then, it took a few more to come to the conclusion that it was the same substance carbons emitted when crying.

He was crying, Rock observed with slight curiosity, a trait imbed from his time as Light-_hakase_'s lab assistant. Rock gathered a few droplets onto his finger to analyze the mixture more, when the closet door opened, revealing a repliroid garbed in an aqua-green and cream white armor. The repliroid looked astonished for a moment before hurrying over to Rock's side and hoisting the bioroid by his arm.

"Hey, what're you still doing here? They had the walk-in tour a long time ago! C'mon or else we'll miss the new recruit orientation, hey." The repliroid said as he led Rock along the Irregular Hunter HQ's busy hallways.

"I've heard that Rockman X himself is going to lead the orientation today, hey. Doesn't that sound cool?" the repliroid commented. Rock said nothing, still attempting to figure out why this unfamiliar repliroid was leading him to this… new recruit orientation that X was apparently going to lead.

… X?

And very suddenly the repliroid found himself in the big, teary-eyed stare of a small child model bioroid. Most certainly, it was enough for anyone to freeze anyone in their steps and invoke a thought along the lines of: "how cute!"

But the repliroid was a man (or at least he attempted to assure himself of this), and therefore, he would most definitely not squeal in glee (like most of the female population around them)!

So instead the repliroid squeaked out a, "H-hey, is there something wrong?" praying to whatever God(s) humans prayed to that his voice didn't go beyond the third octave.

"Rockman X? You said Rockman X is going to be there?" Rock asked hopefully, his eyes _shining_. The repliroid had never been so scared of blue before.

"I- I heard h-he would." The repliroid replied in a squeak barely audible to the human ears.

Rock looked absolutely blissful as he lightly pulled on the dazed repliroid's arm and requested that the repliroid lead him to the orientation hall. The repliroid was more than happy to comply, those big blue eyes of the bioroid were suffocating… and very hard to resist.

And as Rock attracted a fair amount of fangirls and a few fanboys from merely walking along the halls with his large shining blue eyes fixated in front of him, the repliroid figured the Irregular Hunters would have to recruit the bioroid just because of the child's eye's devastating ability to pierce into the soul of possibly the most hardiest of people.

No, this repliroid would never want to meet this child on the battlefield. He had a feeling the bioroid would be able to pound him to the ground with only his stare. He chanced a glance at Rock's face and decided the bioroid already had.

* * *

Yes, Rock has eyes with the ability to draw in fans (they shine - beware the shiny!), I swear to it!

Haha... we never even got to X yet, and he's the second main character, dang it!

So... aparently most of my reviewers don't want Rock to reveal his TRUE IDENTITY to the others... so I won't. Yet.

Well, I've quite done most of my rambling at the top, so I'll refrain from writing anymore at the moment. Please review!


	6. Chapter 5

The wait this time around wasn't too bad, was it? I mean, it didn't span over two months....

Anyways, here we are! The fifth chapter of Mirai no Tameni!

Haha, actually, I typed this up over a span of two days (more like two hours).... So, yeah, just goes to show how much more I really could have put into this. I think it turned out alright though... even if the whole story did some crazy 720 degree spin and headed off in another direction.

Oh, and thanks to: RandyPandy, Kit Ninja, Hakumei-chan, heather, Silver Horror, RazgrizAce22, Krow Blood, Robotic-Fusion, StardustDragon052, Obasan-Kitsune, Suigetsudan, , RenegadeWarrior, GundamWingFanatic90, copyto, and Lifa! I seriously love you guys. Sixteen reviews for one chapter (and a short one at that)? I thought I drempt all this up and was seeing things. Seriously.

Anonymous Review Replies:

heather: Thanks, I'll keep your sugestions in mind! And as for Rock's programing going haywire... think of it this way: Rock is a bioroid, otherwise the closest a mechaniloid can get to being a repliroid or android without really being one. He's still has his mechaniloid-like programming, so it'd get in the way of his more 'liberal' android-like program add-ons ('cause really, Light- _hakase_ couldn't change Rock's programming to fit the more sophisticated android type's without getting rid of whatever made Rock, Rock, so I'd sayhe would have had to make override commands and add it on somewhere...). I think this chapter will straighten out a couple of things... or at least I hope so. Er, if my response doesn't make sense... ignore it and just think of it as: Rock wasn't originally planned to be upgraded like an android; it messes up his systems. Bad. And yes, Rock knows how to fight... really well, I suspect. Please be patient with me; I'm getting used to writing out fight scenes. He'll seem cooler later. I swear.

copyto: I'm glad you like it! Rock is rather cute, isn't he? Well, I can't say much for how 'cute' X'll be (probably not very much until later chapters, 'cause I dunno why, but I keep on thinking X acts rather stoic-y unless around familiar people; Rock isn't really all too close to X quite yet, he's a stranger, isn't he?), but yeah, I hope you'll like how I characterize him!

Lifa: Aww, you make me blush! I'm not all that good... I only _wish_ I was as good as you say I am! And yeah, I hope I'm staying as close to cannon as possible with adding Rock in and all.... Wish me luck! Hm... as for X's and Rock's relationship... well, you'll just have to see. I'm getting there, I promise! Rock'll probably join the hunters... being the war hero for his era and all. I wonder how X'll take it ("No! Y-you're under-armored! And a child!" lol). And Zero... I'd say he's being mean, isn't he? Lots'a other people've been saying that... Mommy Alia'll fix it. Probably. We'll just have to see. D: I've been saying that a lot.

Thank you all for the reviews!

Disclaimer: Er... I don't own Rockman (MegaMan), I swear.

Warning(?): Angst; like of the Rock kind (what the heck happened to the humor?).

* * *

For the Future – Chapter 5

And the Plot Thickens

Rock and the repliroid eventually made it to the orientation hall without too much occurrence, and the repliroid immediately took a seat as far from the bioroid as he possibly could without breaking down several walls. However, Rock didn't even notice the repliroid's absence, as he looked around for his younger brother. He couldn't quite spot the bright blue of the android's armor, and he dejectedly sat down on a seat closest to the door (paranoia hadn't quite escaped his systems yet).

No sooner had Rock sat down, the lights in the auditorium suddenly dimmed to the point where they turned off. Spotlights were aimed at the center of the stage where a lone figure stood behind a podium, looking very serious and imposing despite his lacking height. Rock took a sharp breath, trying to calm himself down as he stared down at his younger brother and Light-_hakase_'s last creation, Rockman X.

The once noisy orientation hall grew eerily quiet as the repliroids awaited a speech from their hero. X cleared his throat and spoke.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to the Irregular Hunter Recruit Orientation. My name is Rockman X, Irregular Hunter and commander of the Elite Unit #17. My job today is to address and inform you all of the pros and cons of the job that all of you are no doubt thinking of going into. Your job will be to decide whether or not this is a job you want to take." X gave the crowd a sharp look. "Your motivations are none of my concern as of yet; I hardly doubt it will matter unless you become a soldier in my unit. However, I do hope you have the determination to make it as an Irregular Hunter. Do not get me wrong, General Signas has requested that I recruit as, may I quote, _'many of those… impressionable rookies that we most definitely hope will join even after your attempts to dissuade them from joining.'_" The crowd chuckled lightly. X smiled, even while not dropping his professional aura.

And as X continued speaking to his audience, indeed making it seem the job they were about to take was utterly bloody and not for the weak hearted, Rock blandly realized this X wasn't really his _younger_ brother anymore. No, this was Rockman X, hero of many Irregular wars over the span of around sixty years; a great gap between his measly sixteen. Slowly, the bioroid stood up and walked out of the orientation hall, not entirely comprehending that he had just been knocked over by an annoyed Zero. Oh, whoops.

"Finally found ya' brat." Zero huffed as he latched a hand onto Rock's left arm. Rock looked surprised for a moment before shaking himself out of his stupor and jerking his arm free from the android's grip. He quickly, without really thinking, ran back into the orientation hall, nearly knocking over the repliroids in his haste to reach another exit; preferably one leading out of the building.

He'd quite nearly forgotten about X, until Zero called his brother's name, "Oh, hey X! Grab the kid!" And X, so used to following Zero's orders in emergency situations (because really, the red android was still his _sempai_(1) in a way; even if his plans seemed hair brained and suicidal at first, but when were they ever not?), immediately held fast onto Rock's retreating leg, nearly falling over from the motion Rock exerted.

"L-let go!" Rock cried desperately. He wasn't ready to face his brother yet, not yet… maybe in a couple years perhaps, when he understood a lot more, but not _now_. "P-please, let go…!" He'd almost said X's name. Not what exactly a stranger would do.

But it was too late, as Zero pounced on the desperate bioroid and disabled him, swiftly binding the smaller robot's legs and arms with cuffs.

Crisis adverted, X relinquished his death grip on Rock's leg and instead turned to Zero questioningly, "Who's this, Zero? And why were you chasing him… in Irregular Hunter _Headquarters_?" Irregulars weren't supposed to run amok when Hunters resided all around them.

Zero sighed and poked Rock to get him to stop whimpering before turning to X. "He mentioned Light-_hakase_." And that was all it took to get X to nod in understanding before dismissing the orientation until another time could be scheduled. No one objected.

-----------------------------------------

And so, Rock ended up back in the blank room, fettered onto a titanium pillar situated in the middle of the bland floor, and subject to X's, Zero's, and Alia's equally intense stares (Axl had been excused – no, dismissed – as his head had started to hurt).

Rock stared back, pitifully, with large teary eyes, as he tried his best to not burst out crying or harming his processors while suppressing his suddenly over reactive emotional response systems. The three robots in front of him twitched and shifted their feet, suddenly awkward.

Finally, X offered, "Rock… right? (Rock nodded solemnly) You mentioned Light-_hakase_, according to Zero and Alia, here. Mightn't you explain, in detail, how you may be related to him?" Oh, of all words to choose. Really.

"H-he's my… creator." Rock responded, looking off to the side.

X looked towards his two companions before turning back to his supposed brother. "Your… creator?" X shook his head. "Thomas Xavier Light-_hakase_ died over a century ago. Unless you're older than me, Rock, I do not see how you can be one of his creations." The boy in front of X was a repliroid, wasn't he?

Rock winced and a couple loose tears trailed down his cheeks (Alia and Zero looked even more so uncomfortable while X looked like he just committed the worst sin known to man), "I-I…." Rock considered lying for a horrible moment, before shaking his head and muttering, "I'm sorry, _E _(again, he almost uttered his brother's name; don't say it, it'll hurt, Rock reasoned)… I can't tell you. _I can't_."

X looked lost, as did Zero and Alia. Rock really shouldn't have looked such like a child. It made it really hard to question and push for answers.

Alia attempted, "Rock-kun, we really need you to tell us."

"I can't, I can't, I _can't_." Rock repeated like a mantra. Zero looked skeptically at Alia.

"He's… clean right?" He questioned hesitantly. The boy didn't look all too stable.  
Alia nodded. "He is."

Rock drowned out whatever else the three others in the room as he pushed at his original programming to be quiet. Ignore the emotions, ignore the personality programming, emulate all the mechanilroid qualities he had… yes, he had to think logically. He couldn't be human in this situation. Be the robot he was… yeah. But his logic only pointed towards the conclusion he didn't want. Er… what would Roll do? Tears prickled at his visual sensors again and Rock deleted the line of thought. Something had to happen. Soon; lest he resort to more violent methods.

And so it did.

A large resounding explosion shook the building and alarms blared obnoxiously, prompting X and the others to action. A brief glance back at Rock later, X ran out of the room, closely followed by Zero and Alia, leaving the bioroid behind. Alone.

More booming noises shook the building and Rock briefly wondered whether or not the building was safe. He hadn't seen what the building looked from the outside, but he was certain the picture in the holographic book showed the building as a tall, towering office building. It most certainly couldn't handle too much stress, could it?

Before Rock could contemplate this more, however, the door to the room opened again, and instead of X or any other familiar face, it was a light-blue armored repliroid with what seemed to be goggles and fins on his helmet. Tufts of bright red hair stuck out of the bottom of his helmet in odd angles, and they were ruffled thoroughly by their owner as the repliroid stared at Rock in confusion.

"Huh? A prisoner?" The repliroid noisily walked over to the bound bioroid, his flipper like, clawed feet slapping on the steel floor every step. "You do something wrong, kid?" The repliroid scratched his head again, "But to leave you unguarded…."

"They must have their reasons. Come, Mar, we should get going. The mechaniloids are only going to last so long. We need to be out before they are all destroyed." Another repliroid appeared from the shadows, and Rock twitched violently. The repliroid faced the bioroid's direction, his apathetic eyes barely visible between his orange tinted visor. His form seemingly melted into the walls, much like ShadowMan Rock guessed.

"Aw c'mon, Staccato, if he really is a prisoner, he could join us! And if not," The blue repliroid, Mar, shrugged nonchalantly, "we could use him as a hostage or just dispose of him. It wouldn't be all that hard."

Rock fidgeted before finally sighing and releasing one of the locks on his shoulders. His whole right arm fell off, and in their distraction, it was too late before Rock had Mar in point blank range of his left buster arm cannon. Keeping a carefully neutral face, Rock began to charge, making the hostage repliroid squeak in alarm.

"Are you two Irregulars?" Rock asked evenly, staring at the ShadowMan-like repliroid (Staccato, was it?) instead of Mar.

Staccato tensed. "And if we are?"

Honestly, Rock didn't know what he'd do if they _were_ Irregulars. He had just acted on impulse and self preservation, really. But if they were Irregulars, then they'd hurt humans, or perhaps other innocent repliroids; Rock couldn't let them go, certainly. He steeled himself to give his verdict.

"I will fight you." Rock stated simply. Mar groaned and Staccato's face mask twitched as the latter fell into a defensive position before… disappearing. Rock was suddenly aware of a gaping hole in his chest as a large scythe imbedded itself into his chest cavity, missing his main generator by less than a centimeter.

"A shame it is, then." The ninja repliroid said from behind Rock. Staccato's eyes flashed dangerously. "You will die here."

The plasma weapon was retrieved from his systems, and Rock quickly swerved 180 degrees to instead aim his charged buster at his attacker's face. "I think not." And he fired… and missed. Mar held Rock in a one armed hug around his middle as his other flipper-like appendage grew extremely sharp, threatening to lacerate the smaller bioroid. Rock quickly shot a non charged shot at the blue repliroid, and using this momentary advantage while the other screamed in pain, he leaped out of the two repliroids' reach, scraping up his previously discarded arm in the process.

"Dang it!" Mar growled as he held a hand to his half melted face. Rock calmly reattached his limb while watching his two opponents. "Why I 'otta – !" a shot rang in the confined room, but not from Rock. Another figure stood in the door way this time, a familiar pistol held in his hand. Another was quickly summoned, and Axl smirked peevishly at the two Irregulars.

"Heya, Irregulars! You two really should know not to just barge into Hunter Headquarters, especially when all three legendary Hunters are at base." Axl narrowed his eyes warningly. "I won't let you two escape." His threatening effect was lost when he stumbled a few moments later, however.

Axl let one arm go as he held it up to his forehead crystal dizzily. "Stupid headache…." He groused.

Mar looked nervous either way and he motioned to Staccato, "Let's go, Stac'. The force field won't hold for much longer." and the two teleported away, leaving Rock and Axl to glance awkwardly at each other.

"You let them go, Axl." Rock stated.

Axl sighed. "I know."

* * *

Yes indeed, the plot thickened. Sorta. This is really turning into Rockman X9 more than anything, huh?

So yeah, I managed to keep Rock from revealing everything... for now. I think I cause too much mass destruction just to keep Rock's TRUE IDENTITY a secret from everyone. Oh, and I got X in here somehow! He... didn't stay very long though.... I'll have to work on that.

I actually don't have much to say this time... wow. Er, before I go, I'm gonna have to ask help from my readers. Ready?

I need Irregular generals. Like ideas for them; seeing as I have no idea what the heck they're supposed to be like and all. I'll need seven of them (why seven? Well, you guys have already met one of them; if you guess correctly, I'll get you cyber cookies). Just don't make them all cool and stuff; I'll have a hard time killing them off.

So yeah. Can anyone guess what's gonna happen next?

(1) _Sempai - _Senior

We all know, _hakase_ means Doctor (scientist), right?

Review please!


	7. Chapter 6 Extra 1

Summer's here, and instead of picking up the slack with my elongated free time, I've taken to vegetating and lounging fruitlessly on my swivel chair. You all have permission to mentally mangle me.

... So, uh, sorry? (*isblastedbyawallofrottentomatoes*)

Um, I'm really bad at replying to reviews - make no mistake, I love them all dearly and I've read them through enough to be able to quote from them off the top of my head, but I really don't know what to say (completely irrational with my untamable habit of vomiting out rants like no tomorrow)!

So unless you specifically ask me a question, I probably won't answer back. I'm sorry. (I love the critiques though - !)

Yes, I know this is very unhappily short. I'll make it up to you guys.... I promise.

* * *

Mirai no Tameni

Chapter 6

Proof of Existence

Chaos reigned supreme in the Irregular Hunter HQ. Two Irregulars and an army of mechaniloids had just barged successfully into headquarters; how else would anyone react? X and Zero ran through various parts of the building to ensure there were no remainders of the last battle, while Alia joined the rest of the navigators in assessing the measure of damage to the Hunters.

Now it was all a matter of loosing Axl while trying to escape the clutches of macho doctor repliroid-clones.

"Stay still, you're hurt!" One of the doctor repliroids grunted as he held down Rock's flailing left arm.

Rock struggled valiantly, but fighting off around ten one hundred-fifty kilogram hunks of titanium was no easy feat. "I-I'm fine! Really!" Not really; his processor was blaring with warnings, particularly about the lack of cooling agents in his systems. Oh, and maybe the hole through his chest. "Just please let me go!" Rock pleaded, not entirely looking forward to facing X's interrogation. He was tempted to take off some of his limbs to escape, but he had the slightest feeling he'd never get them back… not to mention running without legs might become a problem.

Finally, Rock gave a violent lurch before falling limp into the doctor-clone repliroids' arms, his body sabotaging all available energy to focus on his self-repair systems. Rock immediately overrode the program, but it was too late – during his pause in animation, Rock had been strapped down to a transport board and was on his way towards what he could only guess would be the infirmary.

"L-leeeeeeeeeeet… me g-gg _zzt_…." Rock's vocalization ability left him, and the bioroid was left with only the option of either going into emergency stasis or glaring at his captors. He settled for the latter.

Axl suddenly came into his line of sight, grinning impishly, "You're pretty banged up there, Rock. You might want to follow Lifesavers' orders and let him… them fix you. You won't get better any other way."

Rock wanted to retaliate that his auto repair systems could have patched him up just fine (provided that he had enough energy to support the nanobots), but it was rather hard to when his vocalizing systems were shut down. The bioroid pouted at the repliroid until one of the doctor repliroids shoved the sharp end of a… er, plasma needle syringe into his neck. Rock was notified of an unidentified substance in his cooling systems before abruptly shutting down due to a power grid failure.

In the meantime, Axl and the others panicked, not understanding why Rock's systems went into disarray from a simple sedative commonly given to repliroids. The child was quickly rushed to the medical center, Lifesavers all working to extract the sedative while preventing further coolant leaks, and Axl generally dancing around the group, worriedly. Finally the new-gen was left pacing nervously in the bustling hallway outside the infirmary, while the Lifesavers worked on Rock.

He was joined by Alia (who punched him for getting up while he had a migraine; it hurt a lot more than his headache, Axl bemoaned), then X and Zero soon after.

"What happened, Axl?" was the first thing out of X mouth, followed by, "Are you okay?"

Axl quickly waved X's concerns away, replying, "I'm fine, X. As for what happened… well, I sorta ran into the Irregulars responsible for the whole mess… or at least I think they're the ones behind the mechaniloid attack." The new-gen shook his head, ignoring the pain the action induced, and the creepy laughter in the confines of his mind. Maybe he needed to get himself checked over for viruses. "Rock was fighting the two of them when I arrived, so I think he'd know…." Axl trailed off, biting his bottom lip anxiously. "But Rock… he… well, there's something wrong with him."

"Something wrong?" Alia was quick to ask. "Is Rock-kun in danger, missing, or –?"

"He's going to be fine." A Lifesaver emerged from the medical center. "That repliroid had received great amounts of damage, but his auto repair systems seem to be handling his wounds pretty well. There is a slight… abnormality however."

"Abnormality?" Alia parroted.

The doctor repliroid nodded solemnly, "Yes, you see, this repliroid ("Rock," Axl supplied helpfully), yes, Rock, he has a rather… unique body. His parts are ancient, and most of his systems are situated differently than a repliroid's. Where his generator should have been is his fusion chamber and organic digestion system. It was what kept him alive after what should have been an instant death hit." Lifesaver looked to X as he said, "In fact, his systems are most closely related to yours Commander X."

"Mine?" X asked quizzically.

Lifesaver nodded. "By a long shot, yes, but if anything else, his systems are a hybrid of the Sniper Joe and your blueprints." The repliroid gave a moment for the information to sink in before turning to head back into the medical ward. "I expect… Rock to be conscious in a few hours. Please do not cause too much a disturbance when you come to see him." Lifesaver gave a pointed look towards Zero and Axl before retreating.

Zero frowned. "Could he be…?" He gave a hesitant look towards X, who shook his head helplessly.

"I don't know Zero. I don't know."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(D:)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rock woke up, feeling very indolent, as though his processor was put into a tar bath and reinserted into his body.

"Uggh…." At least his vocal systems were back online.

"You're awake, I see." A low voice commented from behind Rock. Startled, the bioroid jumped backwards, stumbling out of the bed he was situated in.

"Ow." Rock muttered more out of habit than actual pain. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and gazed up to meet the eyes of one of the doctor repliroids from before. Rock's eyes widened as he scrambled backwards, bringing his left arm in front of him, horrified when he found it was disarmed.

But oh, the repliroid kept on walking closer, and Rock didn't want to be subjected to X's scrutiny again, and –

Rock desperately raised his less used right arm and smiled grimly when he found no one had the insight to disable this arm as well. He leveled a sharp gaze at the substantially larger repliroid as he threateningly charged his buster. Then he stopped, the more logical part of his processor catching up to him. The repliroid was only trying help, Rock remembered, and shooting him wouldn't be… _right_ (the highly moralistic side of him shot off warnings about his impolite tendencies as of late). Unfortunately, he didn't have the time to argue with himself about moralistic values as X and Zero hurriedly rushed into the room.

The repliroid doctor immediately retreated behind the two androids as they pointed their weapons towards Rock. Axl and Alia followed in soon after.

"Rock-kun…." Alia bit her lip and hesitated, hand outstretched towards the frightened bioroid. "Rock-kun, please disarm your buster. We – we don't want to hurt you."

Rock looked between X and Alia, uncertain. Finally he announced, "I dislike your scrutiny." Blunt and to the point.

"If you stop being stubborn and actually answer our questions, we wouldn't have to do stuff like this, kid." Zero replied bitingly.

"Zero." X frowned.

The red android sighed. "Sorry; something about the kid puts me on edge." He narrowed his eyes. "Almost like…." Zero trailed off, shaking his head. "Nevermind."

X and Alia looked towards Zero worriedly.

"Explain that to me later Zero." X said as he turned his full attention to Rock once more. "Rock, please reconsider your actions. We do not want to make enemies of you; however your identification and your possible relation to Light-_hakase_ could be crucial information."

Rock bit his lip. "Why? You have already cleared me as an Irregular, as I have no virus. My identification is that of Light-_hakase_'s creation; is that not enough?"

X shook his head. "We need confirmation that you are truly Light-_hakase_'s creation; afterwards we can interrogate you on the happenings of the Irregular attacks today and then you may go wherever you wish.

"That is, of course, inferring that you were indeed built by Light-_hakase_." X hesitated.

Rock's eyes darkened. "I'm supposing you have other – more personal – inquires about my being. I'm sorry, but I will have to decline answering them at this time… not yet."

The blue android sighed. "Of course. However, otherwise do we have your consent to continue our investigation, Rock?"

"… Just, no more bondage. Please."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(:D)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sooo," Zero drawled. Rock fidgeted. "Name? Your real name, mind you."

"… Rockman."

X bit his lip.

Zero narrowed his eyes but gave no further comment. "Age?"

"Age of activation period, physical form, or since initial activation?" Rock asked.

"What about all three?" Zero suggested.

Rock nodded stiffly. Well, here went nothing… "My activation period amounts to approximately sixteen years, three months, twenty-five days, two hours, and thirty-seven minutes. ("Sounds more accurate than approximate to me." Axl muttered from behind Rock.) My physical form is that of a ten year old male human child. And it has been… (deep breath, in, out) one hundred and seventy-six years since my initial activation."

Silence.

Then, "Wow, you're _old_." Axl whistled.

Rock took a moment to appreciate the passage of time as well. "Yes, yes I am."

"It sure does explain quite a few things." Alia said rather quietly.

X looked oddly paler underneath the harsh florescent light above them. "It doesn't explain why he's here now. I know that the lab wasn't in the best of condition when Dr. Cain found me, but surely he must have noticed if Rock, er, Rockman was there as well.

"And also, then why now? Why weren't we notified of his presence before? Why hadn't Light-_hakase_ mentioned him in any of the messages he left behind for us?" X's eyes turned to Rock painfully. _Why hadn't he told him?_

Rock twisted himself in his uncomfortable metal chair to escape his younger brother's accusing eyes. But indeed, why had he awoken now, of all times?

"Coincidence, Light not wanting to tell you 'cause he's weird like that – there's lots'a reasons why." Zero said as he leaned back into his chair. "Who knows."

"That isn't the most comforting of answers, Zero." X sighed. "But it seems it is the only one we have to go on at the moment. As for you, Rockman, I would like to believe you are telling us the truth. Unfortunately, until we can get concrete evidence for your identity, we will have to keep you here."

Rock bit his lip. "I have data copies of Light-_hakase_'s licensing and insurance policies. If you wish, I can connect produce the documents as proof."

Zero shook his head. "No go, kid. We need to have proof of _your_ identity, not Light-_hakase_'s."

"What? B-but they show Light-_hakase_'s ownership of me. Isn't that enough?"

A stunned silence met this statement.

"O-o-_ownership_?" Alia managed to squeak out.

Rock frowned quizzically, "Well, yes; what else would do then?"

More silence.

"Rockman, I think we may need to speed you up to the times." X smiled slightly. "Alright; we'll have a look at those documents – I do think they will be enough identification. We should have an ID number assigned to you in approximately a week."

* * *

What is this? Rock's TRUE IDENTITY is finally revealed?! (OMGGasp!)

... Except for that, this is totally a fill in chapter. We'll see more action in the next one. I swear.

And now... EXTRA!!!!

* * *

Mortality

Mortal – subject to death

Rock knew his 'father' was subject to death as was the rest of the human race (Wily had seemed yet to understand this; all those escapades couldn't have been all too good for his general health, yet he still lived), however there were many moments where this truth escaped him, especially during the times when he would lean against the aged scientist with his sister unit, Roll, Auto, and the support units, Eddy the Fliptop, and Rush, and act as a human family would (and if they were lucky, even Blues would be there, standing in his corner, but sharing the ambience all the same). He would feel… content to stay in that position for the rest of eternity, but humans were a fickle race with timed counts to their depressingly short and fragile lives.

Light-_hakase_ was always in a hurry: to finish his latest project, to complete X, to upgrade Rock for another 'War', to… do _something_. Lately, as he finished up X, Light-_hakase_ had taken to upgrading Rock and Roll (Blues refused to be touched).

"For the future," he would say, and they understood, despite the foreboding undertone it implied.

Wily seemed to have quieted down lately (Roll had lightly joked that he had finally "kicked the bucket"; they had all laughed then), and Rock helped his 'father' around the lab and his sister around the house, feeling a sense of fulfillment. He had wished this could have gone on forever.

Then Wily's ultimate monster hit.

Forte had teleported in a few hours before the monster came, looking worse for the wear, falling on top of Rock with his rather unfortunate coordinates.

"F-Forte!" Rock sputtered, pausing in his thrashing to identify _who_ he was exactly attempting to buckle off.

Forte, still disorientated from his sloppy teleportation, instead of slugging or shooting Rock (as he would have done given any other situation), hugged the black haired bioroid, crying insanely, "The Demon! Wily, that idiot of a creator, did something to him!"

"The Demon? Forte, I do not comprehend what you are referring to." Rock said, all the while attempting to calm down the hysterical bioroid to no avail.

Finally, Roll beat the ebony robot off with a titanium-reinforced broom, threatening to call the police on the multiple accounts of "property damage, property theft, attempted murder, and now sexual harassment (Rock wasn't quite certain how the last fit in, but he was certain his sister had a good reason for it (Forte was sure to get a good whack to the head if he'd done anything to Roll-chan…))."

And of course, Blues teleported in just in time to hear the last part of Roll's sentence. Without bothering to announce his presence with his customary five-note whistle, Blues instead decided to proclaim his arrival by tackling Forte off his straddling position over Rock.

"What the heck are you doing to my younger brother, Forte?!" Blues roared, displaying the most amount of emotion Rock had ever seen on the red bioroid, and Forte uncharacteristically cowed away, raising his arms in a defensive action against the similarly uncharacteristically aggressive prototype.

"I'm asking for help, and this is the response I get?" Forte spat, merely a shadow of his former self, humbled by whatever event that had caused him to resort to this method.

"Blues, stand down." Rock commanded, always the peacemaker. "Forte, explain – clearly, and with more details please. We cannot help you if you do not tell us what the source of your problems lay."

Forte hesitated, and then plowed into his explanation. "Wily, ever since I stole the plans for another robot from Light (Roll's lips pursed), had been working on some big project. He called it his 'ultimate creation', Zero." Forte sighed. "I looked into his plans later, (of course I have access to his plans, you dolt! If I didn't, Blueberry, you would have seen some of the most utterly horrible and useless creations to ever grace this plane of existence. To my knowledge, Wily didn't know… not that it matters anymore) and I copied and downloaded the files on it to my databanks. I could show it to you." And Forte reached out to touch Rock's forehead. Both Blues and Roll retaliated, the two grabbing a hold of the Wily-bot's wrist before he could reach Rock. "What?" Forte looked at the two crossly.

"How can we trust you?" Roll hissed, her iron grip tightening on the ebony robot's wrist. "What if you download something else into Rock's systems? A virus or perhaps a potentially dangerous program to cripple him?" Blues nodded, empathetic to Roll's concerns.

Rock repressed a tired sigh, and gently pried both Roll's and Blues' hands away from Forte, silently pressing the gloved fingers to his processor. Both his siblings looked on in worry and amazement at Rock's trusting nature before resigning themselves to the Blue Bomber's decision.

A moment later, Rock mechanically announced, "Data file: Android Zero, Model number DWN-∞; Download complete." He shook his head slightly before relooking over the contents of the transferred file. "He's modeled after X's original blueprints." Rock breathed.

"X? Don't tell me Light's decided to make one of these monsters too." Forte's eyes darkened.

"Father would never make a 'monster', Forte." Roll sniffed. "X is going to be our little brother; he's going to be able to create his own personality and everything, so don't you dare try to belittle Light-_hakase_'s achievements."

"More than that, Forte, you said Dr. Wily has already activated… Zero, right?" Rock questioned, a slight edge of uncertainty creeping into his tone.

"Yeah," Forte nodded. "Zero's already decimated all of Skull Fortress, and I barely… made it… out…." Forte paused sporadically at his last few words, as though reminiscing something terrifying, his eyes glazing over blankly in a thousand-yard stare.

Rock hesitated, "And… Dr. Wily?"

"Dead," Forte deadpanned. "Zero, he… snapped, just so suddenly… he wasn't like that before. Like a carbon child, perhaps, but never…." The ebony robot trailed off.

"It seems Wily completely ignored the thirty year testing period." Blues commented, "Light-_hakase_ had said that these _androids_ needed a period of time to adjust, or else they'd go crazy… or perhaps not if they were given a stable environment." He shook his head. "I guess Skull Fortress isn't really the greatest surroundings an android could have."

Forte snapped out of his reverie and snorted, "Heck no, Zero, that idiot, would always cling to me and stuff, asking if there was anything fun to do…. And really, between the endless pits and spike covered floors and ceilings, there wasn't much he could do, except…." Forte breathed in deeply, "And Wily took this and taught Zero to… destroy things. That was probably what done him in, in the end."

"I-I see," Rock choked out.

Forte stared straight at Rock, pleadingly. "Zero's heading in this direction, as far as I can tell. He'll be here in a couple hours at best. It seems he's going to attempt to complete his objective after all. I came here to warn you about this. We've got to… we've got to b-bring him down." Forte declared shakily.

Blues nodded. "Alright then, it seems I'll have to stay awhile longer today, huh, Rock, Roll?" The oldest bioroid flashed an encouraging smile towards his younger siblings. Forte looked pointedly away.

"Let's report this to Father. He'll know what to do." Roll suggested, and the rest followed, Forte grumbling loudly to himself that Light-_hakase_couldn't possibly know everything. Roll's titanium broom vigorously shut the ebony bioroid up.

* * *

... This was actually another story idea, but what the heck - it fits in so well here, we might as well keep it right? I'll continue this one sporadically, but expect a couple references to this thing sometime in the main story.

Review please?


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